Apple v. Samsung: Schiller to Testify Friday as Apple Calls on Top Brass

Apple Reveals Dozens of Early iPhone Prototypes: Just before the tech giants went to trial, a document with around 100 iPhone and iPad prototypes and CAD drawings was released to the public. Above is a version of what Apple dubbed its “excruded” iPhone design, which resembles the iPod with its cylindrical shape.

Apple’s Industrial Design Process in Detail: On Monday, Apple industrial designer Christopher Stringer took to the stand as Apple’s first witness. Stringer, who’s worked at Apple for almost 17 years, provided some unique insights into Apple’s design process. “Our role is to imagine products that don’t exist and guide them to life,” Stringer said of the role of Apple's ID team. Above is an early iPhone prototype with clipped corners.

The Industrial Design Team Works at a Kitchen Table: Apple's culturally diverse industrial design team – hailing from Japan, the UK, Germany, the US and Australia, among other locales – has worked together for a very long time. “We work together around a kitchen table,” Stringer said. Above is an early iPad prototype.

Samsung Releases Excluded Exhibits to the Public: On Tuesday, Samsung lawyer John Quinn sent out a public statement decrying Judge Koh’s decision to let Apple say a particular Samsung smartphone, the F700, was an iPhone copy. In retaliation, Samsung publicly released two batches of evidence Koh had ordered be excluded from the case. Judge Koh wasn't pleased when she learned this had happened later that day: “Tell Mr. Quinn I’d like to see him today,” Koh said. “I want to know who drafted the press release, who authorized it from the legal team.”

Apple’s Proposed Solution Is Summary Victory: Apple’s legal team was quick to act when Samsung released a series of excluded exhibits to the public early this week. On Thursday, it filed a document in response to Samsung lawyer John Quinn’s declaration. ”Apple requests that the Court issue sanctions granting judgment that Apple’s asserted phone design patent claims are valid and infringed by Samsung,” the filing states. You read that correctly – to rectify Samsung's document-releasing mischief, Apple is asking that it basically be awarded summary victory for its design patent claims. Fat chance of that happening. Above, a favorite iPhone prototype of Samsung's case – the mockup has Sony branding.

Samsung’s Working on Two Windows Phone 8 Devices: Samsung has two 4G LTE Windows Phone 8 devices currently in the works, dubbed the "Odyssey" and "Marco." The Verge was the first to discover the phones in court documents. Both devices will include a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The Odyssey will have a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display and an 8-megapixel camera, as well as NFC. The Marco is the lower-end model of the two, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 5-megapixel camera. According to a court document, they are set to be released in Q4 of this year.

Early iPhone Sketches: Above is a collection of sketches Apple's industrial design team drew for the first iPhone. The image was shown in court during Christopher Stringer's testimony.

We’re two days into Apple v. Samsung litigation, and it’s been a doozy of a trial thus far. Friday shouldn’t be disappointing either: It promises to provide never-before-seen looks into Apple’s creative process as the legal crew from Cupertino calls its witnesses to the stand.

Apple executives Phil Schiller (senior vice president of worldwide marketing) and Scott Forstall (senior vice president of iOS software) will be the first two to testify Friday morning in a San Jose, California federal court. But upcoming testimonies aren’t just limited to top Apple brass. Apple’s rolling list of trial witnesses includes Justin Denison, Samsung’s Chief Strategy Officer; Wookyun Kho, a Samsung engineer; Peter Bressler, an industrial designer and University of Pennsylvania professor; and Ravin Balakrishna, a University of Toronto computer science professor and interface designer.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Apple will also be calling on graphic designer Susan Kare to provide testimony. Kare created some of Apple’s most enduring software icons, including those famous pictographs of a floppy disc, wristwatch and “happy Mac” bearing a smiley face. How her work relates to the iPhone and iPad remains to be seen, but we can surmise that Apple will be looking to Kare, Bressler and Balakrishna to affirm what it believes is the incontestable originality of Apple’s in-house design.

We haven’t even finished two days of court proceedings, and already the trial has provided compelling drama for technology enthusiasts. Monday’s proceedings involved the tedium of jury selection, but the second day of the trial was marked by juicy opening statements from each side. Apple painted a picture of innovation and ingenuity, and claimed Samsung’s 3G-related patents are old and not applicable to Apple products. Samsung, meanwhile, trumpeted its broad product line to demonstrate that the iPhone didn’t cast undue influence over the aesthetics of Galaxy smartphones, and went into technical detail about the patents involved in the case.

Trial watchers may find the action occurring outside of the courtroom even more intriguing than what’s going on inside. On Tuesday, Samsung lawyer John Quinn sent out a public statement decrying Judge Koh’s ruling to let Apple say the Samsung F700 smartphone was an iPhone copy in its opening statement. Samsung then publicly released two batches of evidence Koh had ordered to be excluded from the case. Judge Koh wasn’t pleased, and Apple even less so — its lawyers filed a document requesting the Court rule that Apple’s design patent claims were valid and infringed by Samsung. (More details about this imbroglio can be found in the fourth and fifth images in the gallery above.)

And now, as we await more revelations in day three of the trial, let’s take a look at the most intriguing product prototypes and illustrations that are being used as exhibits in the case. Click through the gallery above, and please share your thoughts in the comments section below.